DENVER — Tony Boselli officially made it to his 48th year Friday, a birthday he is not taking for granted.
"Isn’t that the truth," Boselli, the former Jacksonville Jaguars left tackle and Boulder native said Thursday night in a phone interview with 9NEWS.
Earlier Thursday, Boselli finished up his first round of golf since recovering coronavirus, even if he realized there are still residual effects from the illness that placed him at a Florida hospital ICU for three days in late-March.
"I get tired quick, but I’m good," he said. "I work all day. I played golf for the first time today since I got sick. So I’m doing good, I just get tired. I feel like an old man."
He was asked if he had any advice for Von Miller, the Broncos’ 31-year-old star pass rusher who learned Thursday he had coronavirus.
"Obviously, since he has asthma, pay attention to your lungs," Boselli said. "Stay hydrated and get rest. Don’t try to push it. And just really stay on top of it and pay attention to your lungs. That’s all I know to do after going through what I went through.
"Everyone’s different. Look at my own family. We’re all related and had wildly different experiences."
Boselli, his wife Angi and two sons, Andrew, 22, and Adam, 21, all contracted COVID-19.
"I have three girls," he said. "I have no idea how they never got it. They were in the house the whole time."
Although Miller told 9NEWS he wasn’t "feeling sick or hurting or anything like that," on Thursday afternoon, Boselli’s story is a warning that coronavirus recovery is unpredictable.
"I got it and after the first four or five days it was like not that big a deal," Boselli said. "I had a fever and felt lousy, no big deal. But then it got to my lungs like in Day 7, and by Day 8 I was ... I was down and out."
He entered the hospital on Wednesday, April 25. He was in the ICU for three days.
"The first two days I was really sick," he said. "They had me on oxygen, put me on Plaquenil and Z-pak, the malaria drug antibiotic. I was miserable those first two days and they kept having to up the oxygen. And then day 3 I felt a little bit better. Day 3 I could tell I was going in the right direction."
By Monday, March 30, he was released. He has returned to his job, working from his Ponta Verde, Fla., home, as a senior vice president of Optum, a health service company.
His first round of golf was with no cart.
"I walked and after 12 holes I found myself breathing hard," he said. "Like I was going for a run. So I would probably compare it, I guess with someone who has bad pneumonia.
"It just takes some time – and they told me it would take a few weeks to get back to feeling good. But I’m riding my bike. I got the all-clear from the Mayo Clinic last Friday, the Friday before Easter so Good Friday. Past two tests. Blood work. I’ve been riding my bike every day, my old beach cruiser, they told me to get out there and start moving a little bit."
Boselli played for head coach Sam Pagano at Fairview High School in Boulder. He played at USC, then embarked on a 7-year NFL career that included five consecutive Pro Bowl appearances and three consecutive All Pro berths. His relatively brief, but highly decorated career has made him a Hall of Fame finalist the past four years.
Once the NFL season starts, Boselli continue to serve as the Jaguars’ radio color commentator on Sundays and handle the same role on Westwood One radio for the NFL’s Thursday Night Game of the Week.
Although Boselli suffered from the virus that has been responsible for nearly 147,000 deaths worldwide, he is not encouraging the United States or the NFL to remain shut down until a vaccine is discovered.
"One, I think it’s been smart that we’ve slowed things down, shut everything down during this period of time and try to get the testing ramped up and try to get a better understanding of this virus," he said. "And hopefully we can come up with even better treatments. But I don’t think you can shut the whole country down forever. People have to work, and there’s families to support.
"And then people have to think about each other. People have to wear masks, make sure you do the little things and hopefully we can slowly get our way back to work as our health system starts to figure this thing out. A vaccine is going to take a while. And you just can’t shut down the whole world until you get that vaccine so.
"As far as the NFL, they got some time still. From a players’ standpoint, you’re talking four more months until we get there. And so I think testing is going to be better. They’re looking at a test this week that can get results in 15 minutes. So you’re going to see more and more of that kind of technology.
"So if you could test teams and keep them isolated and train I think there’s an opportunity to figure out a way to do it. But there’s a lot of moving parts. It’s going to take a pretty good plan to figure it out. But they have some time still."
Before saying goodbye, Boselli, who has kept himself remarkably fit in retirement, said he’d like for Von Miller to have his number and call him. He’d like to help out any way he can.
"It does not discriminate," Boselli said of the coronavirus. "It’s just one of those things that for a lot of people it’s no big deal. A lot of people don’t know they have it. But every once in a while, it’ll come get ya."
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Sports
